The Debate on Don Gaspar

A city board voted Tuesday to upgrade the historic status of a building the state government is planning to demolish to construct a 190,000-square-foot office complex across the street from the Capitol—potentially throwing a wrench in the idea.

The state asked the Historic Districts Review Board to review the status of the Concha Ortiz y Pino Building and four casitas along Don Gaspar that would be torn down to make way for the new office space, which would also include a parking garage with more than 700 spaces.

While state officials have discussed constructing a new office building on the site for years, the board rebuffed that idea a decade ago when it deemed the casitas to be “significant.”

This time around, the state recently asked the city to downgrade that designation to “non-contributing”—that is, not contributing to the historic nature of the area. And it asked the city to deem the Ortiz y Pino Building “non-contributing,” as well.

But the H-board went another direction, unanimously voting to designate the Ortiz y Pino Building as “contributing.”

Backers of the move noted the Ortiz y Pino building was designed by architect Willard Kruger, who also designed the state Capitol and helped reshape the surrounding neighborhood, blending modernism and Territorial-Revival styles. Constructed in 1961, the building now bears the name of a former state legislator and houses part of the Office of the State Engineer.

The board split on the status of the four casitas built around 1930, however.

State officials argued that the houses are out of harmony with the surrounding area and are not notable.

“Although the buildings on the subject property are all eligible for historic status due to age, they are all unremarkable examples of the architectural form and features they exhibit,” the land use firm JenkinsGavin wrote to the board on behalf of the state.

Built as homes before the construction of the current state capitol, the buildings are now offices for state agencies, though city staff say the state has not met the city’s minimum standards for maintaining the structures.

City staff recommended maintaining the “significant” designation, describing the buildings as demonstrating how urban renewal and construction of the state capitol campus in the middle of the last century led to the destruction of older residential neighborhoods.

“This remnant helps to tell the story of how the state buildings transformed the urban pattern both on the border of the Don Gaspar area as well as in the Barrio del Analco,” city officials said in a memo to the board.

Board member Cecilia Rios agreed, calling the buildings “a representation of what was there.”

“There are buildings that are not in harmony. Look at the cathedral. They tell a story,” Rios said at the hearing.

Board member Anthony Guida countered that the previous decision to designate the buildings as “significant” was based merely in fear of what might replace the casitas.

The buildings themselves, he argued, “are simply not significant” and agreed they do not align with the larger state government buildings that surround them.

“We have a monumental axis that extends from the capitol and dies into these buildings,”Guida said.

The board opted to deem the buildings as “contributing,” with Guida opposed.

The state can appeal the board’s decision to the City Council and would have to seek additional permission for demolition to proceed with its plan. .

Meanwhile, though state officials argue the plan to build new offices would allow agencies to move out of rented office space and closer to the Capitol, a report from the Legislature last year noted the state already has too much office space and suggested revisiting the plans.